[Techtalk] Mac or Linux for photo printing?

[Carla Schroder]

Yo. Me again.

I'm getting frustrated with making photo prints on Linux. Some of the things 
that are vexing:

-no simple way to scale images for printing, like 4x6 borderless, or 8x10 with 
1/4" border. I have to scale images manually, which is less fun than it 
sounds

-printing at different resolutions makes zero difference, whether it's 600dpi 
or 2400dpi

-print preview is hideously slow, even on small file sizes

-I want to create calendars, postcards, and other fun stuff without having to 
make it my life's work

For multi-image layouts I use KWord. It's faster and easier to slap a bunch of 
images onto a KWord page in frames than to mess with Gimp layers. But it 
still has some limitations, mainly requiring way too much trial-and-error and 
manual tweaking.

I have a Canon Pixma 4200 printer using the Turbo Print drivers. 64-bit 
Kubuntu. I've tried the Gimp, Digikam, Krita, Konqueror, some weird Gnome 
apps I forget now that had the usual annoying fatal flaws and 
unfinishednesses. I'm ready to take a look at Macs, but I want to hear from 
the smart kids before I work up an attack of New Computer Lust.

What makes the Mac so beloved of graphics artists? Is it the skillions of 
dollars they have invested in Photoshop and other Adobe products? Are there 
lower-cost apps that do the job for normal people? Am I missing some magic 
Linux app that does what I want? Editing images for print is very different 
from optimizing images for the Web. I want to be able to do nice print 
layouts that actually come out the way I want, instead of in some weird 
unpredictable manner, or that require waaay too much hassle to set up. Help 
meeee....

TIA
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Carla Schroder
Linux geek and random computer tamer
check out my Linux Cookbook! 
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/linuxckbk/
best book for sysadmins and power users
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